Vacant Post(grad)
OUSU announced this Tuesday that Catherine Sangster has resigned as VP-Graduates due to concerns over her thesis.
Sangster, who was only elected after a no-confidence vote forced out the controversial Adam Storch last year, cited "academic reasons" as the explanation for the surprise move. She is currently studying for a D.Phil in Linguistics at Merton.
Sangster was responsible for the well-being of the 5,000 graduate students at Oxford, many of whom expressed distress at her departure. Mike McCarthy, MCR President of Wadham, commented: "I'm very sorry to hear that Catherine has resigned. She worked very hard as a student representative throughout the year". Ruth Hunt, OUSU President, expressed her appreciation for Sangster's efforts this term, saying: "I want to thank Catherine for all her work as VP-Graduates. OUSU is attuned to the needs of graduates and so I understand her decision to focus on her academic work".
The VP-Graduates is a recent addition to OUSU, Sangster being only the fourth person to hold the post. Jason Dorsett, the second to gain the title, said that the role had "transformed the attention given to graduate problems". The VP-Graduates is responsible for co-ordinating graduate representation across the University, sitting on University Council and the University's Educational Policy and Standards Committee, as well as chairing the Postgraduate Assembly, and Committee for Graduate Affairs.
Mike McCarthy also expressed the view, shared by other MCR Presidents, that "the VP-Graduates position is one of OUSU's most important sabbaticals" because Oxford "does not have a history of treating its graduate students well".
Sangster is due to remain in her post until the end of term and a replacement is due to be co-opted by the Executive at the beginning of the vacation. Hunt stated that she did not foresee a problem with finding a successor, stating that "lots of people have already expressed an interest". She insisted that it was not inevitable that the role of VP-Graduates was less popular than that of other OUSU sabbatical posts, despite the fact that no-one has yet volunteered for the role of VP-Graduates beginning next Michaelmas.
Unless OUSU can find a student for the position, then the work could fall to the other sabbatical officers, and graduates will have no elected representation at University level.
Some do not share Hunt's belief in the usefulness of the VP-Graduates post, however, as was shown by Adam Storch's outspoken campaign for the position last year. Mr Storch stated that he wished to become VP in order "to lead graduates out of OUSU and abolish my own position". OUSU Council eventually succeeded in removing him, but only after a lengthly referendum campaign.
Ruth Hunt insisted, however, that she did not believe that the recurring problems with the VP-Graduates role were due to the nature of the role itself, but simply to "a series of unfortunate coincidences".
When told of Ms Sangster's resignation, Adam Storch said that it was "more proof that graduates need a separate system" and insisted that OUSU would continue to have difficulty in filling the post, because "the role is totally unnecessary". He repeated the allegation that the post represented the "OUSU empire-building" rather than a real service for graduates.
Catherine Sangster was contacted, but refused to offer any further comment at the time of going to press.
14th Feb 2002